Spells & Starfire

@wild-surge tagged me in a new OC redesign prompt (check out their incredible post here) - thank you so much!

Back into folklore we go and looking at the fae; fairies and gnomes, a humble bridge troll maybe? Redcaps and gremlins or a fearsome nuckelavee? Mythology of any given country or maybe inspiration from another media? A beautiful ruler of their own court who traps people that can't help for but a taste of the delicious food presented? Or maybe a feystolen child? A changeling pretending to be a human? A witch in the disguise of a beautiful maiden living in her hut that walks on hen legs?

I decided to give Seraphina some fairy wings and make her look a little creepier than usual... because fairies can be mischievous little things! (Wild magic must make Fairy Phina quite unpredictable! 🤣)

Fun fact that I just discovered, in Scottish Gaelic fairies are called Na daoine sìthe (pronounced: Nuh Duh-nya She-huh), which translates to ‘the peaceful people’... not necessarily because they are peaceful, but because staying respectful toward them is about your best chance to not have them play mischief on you 🫵 So you gotta be nice to Fairy Phina, just saying 😉

@wild-surge tagged me in a new OC redesign prompt (check out their incredible post here) - thank you so much!

Back into folklore we go and looking at the fae; fairies and gnomes, a humble bridge troll maybe? Redcaps and gremlins or a fearsome nuckelavee? Mythology of any given country or maybe inspiration from another media? A beautiful ruler of their own court who traps people that can't help for but a taste of the delicious food presented? Or maybe a feystolen child? A changeling pretending to be a human? A witch in the disguise of a beautiful maiden living in her hut that walks on hen legs?

I decided to give Seraphina some fairy wings and make her look a little creepier than usual... because fairies can be mischievous little things! (Wild magic must make Fairy Phina quite unpredictable! 🤣)

Fun fact that I just discovered, in Scottish Gaelic fairies are called Na daoine sìthe (pronounced: Nuh Duh-nya She-huh), which translates to ‘the peaceful people’... not necessarily because they are peaceful, but because staying respectful toward them is about your best chance to not have them play mischief on you 🫵 So you gotta be nice to Fairy Phina, just saying 😉

Woop woop, thank you, @kt-catt! 🖤

*rubs hands together like a greedy little fly*

(I really need new, neutral dividers)

What’s a small BG3 detail that you always notice and love?

Halsin's pipe. The lovingly crafted details throughout the Grove. The wonderfully bitchy banter of NPCs you only hear if you stop and listen. The attention to detail woven through every corner of the game. The single, unbitten apple sitting on the Risen Road.....

Not the grand revelations or world-ending stakes, but the tiny details that make the world feel lived in. The moments that tell stories not relevant to the main plot. The objects, conversations, and little pieces of environmental storytelling that reward curiosity and make Faerûn feel real.

What’s one piece of reference material you’re currently obsessed with?

Maphra's voice (which also serves as Celeste's voice claim). I am not an experienced singer and my guitar skills are best described as "enthusiastic." But one of the unexpected joys of writing Celeste has been learning how singing actually feels inside the body.

It has become a bit of an art study all on its own. And as a delightful side effect, I get to spend hours listening to absolutely beautiful music while convincing myself it is research.....

Share a snippet or visual from your current project that you’re quietly proud of.

Young Celeste in all her blood glory.

What’s something you’re looking forward to creating or finishing soon?

Some personal projects outside of fandom should be reaching the finish line relatively soon, which is both exciting and mildly terrifying.

The memoir is going to take forever. Not because I lack motivation, but because it keeps growing. Every time I think I have found the shape of the story, another thread appears that deserves exploring, another question needs answering, another piece of Celeste's life demands attention.

Which is, admittedly, a rather fitting problem for a memoir spanning the life of a Bhaalspawn. 😁

What’s a fun or silly tradition you have with your OCs/Tavs?

Usually, when I sit down to write (not just draft), I murmur ,"okay, girl, come now. Behave." And then smirk a little. She never does.

What’s a BG3 NPC you’d love to see in a completely different outfit or setting?

Dammon. Always Dammon.

What is a BG3 collab project that you would want to do?

I have a zine idea I am going to pitch to a friend in a few months, to see if they are down for it (and we both have the capacity).

What’s a tiny headcanon or detail you’ve added to your Tav/OC that brings you joy?

Honestly, I would not dedicate this much time, energy, and precious brain juice to her if her entire gods-forsaken existence—and her slow, steady descent into absolute madness—did not bring me an unreasonable amount of joy.

At some point, I stopped pretending I was in control of this project.

I am not.

I am merely the unfortunate soul tasked with documenting the life of a deeply complicated woman who keeps making increasingly questionable decisions while I sit in the corner taking notes.

And I adore her for it.

What is something you want your followers to know about you?

I consider myself to be funny and apologize if I am not 😁

Everyone hold the FUCK UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP AND SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN!

My War Domain Cleric of Selûne is HERE!

RHIANNON THE REVERENT

These ideas have spent almost a year living in my head rent free and now that they’ve been brought to life they get to live on your dashboards rent free now too!

I think I'm gonna stop here, because I probably should have already.

Like I said, ridiculously stupid. Also like I said, not without precedent:

How did you come up with your BG3 AUs for your Tavs?

And what do you like more? Your standard BG3 timeline of your Tavs? Or your new AUs?

(While you're at it, why not show a few new VPs or GIFs of it? 😉)

Ooooh, Saulus enters the chat! (Jkjk) But I was so stoked to see you send this ASK over. To be completely honest, a lot of the AUs @thecampjuicebox and I have begun really just happened over Discord chat via silly little discussions. I suppose you could say it all started with a random comment made under one of my Sion posts where I changed his hairstyle to match what it becomes later in the original BG3 universe and joked that he reminded me of some surfer–but then I just had to be extra as always and throw out other random ideas:

But what if he also sold drugs? What if he had an Australia accent? What if he was also a conservationalist?

From there, Shae and I just continued having more conversations, throwing our blorbos into other random worlds. We already have fifteen–yes, you read that right–FIFTEEN RP channels going. So why not be crazy with it and add on some more? I think my favorite part about that is if creativity doesn't spark for one RP channel, there are endless possibilities that motivate a response for another, if not our li'l random OC discussion channel where we just share random images, songs, inspirational things that remind us of these characters.

I cannot stress enough how difficult it is to answer whether I like the standard vs. AU versions of our blorbos. I think I like both equally, and some more than others during different cycles. Sometimes I'm feeling like modern writing, other times I want to dig back into fantasy territory. Lately, the idea of an 1800s Midwestern setting is sounding pretty fun. My favorite switches up the same way my cravings for different foods change. Sometimes I want chocolate ice cream, and sometimes I want an orange Creamsicle. Neither is better than the other; it's simply that I acquire a taste for them more on different days.

I don't have very much new content to share as far as photos and GIFs go because, unfortunately, my laptop is not made to run BG3, and yet I kind of force it to anyway. Now that the weather is 90° here, it is almost impossible to get much of anything going on it without the game freezing anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes at a time before I can even snap a photo in the photomode. I have been trying to break up sharing any images I do manage to take for the purpose of having some form of content, but that has been so difficult lately.

Here are a couple more pics that I've withheld from posting, special just for you!

More College AU Eryndor playing with modern-ish looking fits:

And some Midwestern AU, sinful Father Azalaïs:

Happy Friday!! Thank you my fellow friends - @alliskit, @kt-catt @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream, @helyanwe4608, @nw39, @rdekarios, @the-font-bandit, @mellybaggins @bloodsol94 - for the tags! I was vacationing in my favorite place for inspiration 🇮🇸 so, I got very behind on my story! But I'm back!! Below is a snip from the latest posted chapter of The Matriarch: The Morena Dekarios Story. - Context: We are back in the present (1492 DR), where Morena is chatting with her ex-boyfriend, High Harper Kyle Reinhart.

Disclaimer for new/recent followers: Lute The Bodies is not a safe space for any and all Chosen of the Dead Three. I revel in destroying those characters with extreme prejudice, and in excessively humiliating ways. "Argue with the wall" as the kids say.

I understand that Orin has her fans and yes "I support women's wrongs" and whatnot, but in the interests of full disclosure I gotta say that last night my party telekinesed her off a cliff (as most of my heroes often do) and I captured them in photo mode laughing at her well-deserved comeuppance and I'm not sorry in the least. Because you know what? My swashbuckler's women's wrongs mean more than Orin's women's wrongs every goddamn day the sun rises.

In fairness our heroes intend to do something similar (yet much more explosive) to Gorty, because as fun as it is to see the Netherbrain squish him, defeating Bane's Chosen face to face is way more satisfying. But more about that skidmark later, because there's not much else to cover for this one—I should've probably included it as a coda to the previous entry—though I'd originally planned to include more original storylines here.

See, there was originally more lore for this episode in my head—my blood hunter was supposed to be a foot-soldier of the Bhaal cult until he got ditched by his Circle of Blood druid charge—but I decided to cut corners and will maybe explore that aspect of Wade's backstory in another run. For now his role was to lead our heroes past the Undercity's Farslayer Trial to the Bhaal Temple's doorstep, which he duly did.

Thank you @optimisticgrey for the tag, I am so honored!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any WIP chapters that are ready for human consumption. So instead I hope it’s okay to post something from the first chapter of my WIP fic Shores of Will which is part of my overall WIP series Tidal Fates of Mortal Days (is that enough WIPage to qualify this post?).

This scene draws inspiration from Gale’s in game line in which he says:

She revealed herself to me and became my teacher. In time, she became my muse, and later, even my lover.

I made the interpretation of this being Mystra teaching Gale how to wield the silver fire and crafted this scene.

at this point, I've been tagged by so many of you that it might as well be "10 people I'm getting to know better".

Thank you @thesanguinesonnet @kt-catt @cursed-nyxan & @atsadi-shenanigans for asking lol

I'd like to get to know @bladesingerlily @themontess @the-font-bandit @chaushaus @dramatiquechipmunk @optimisticgrey @dez-08 @spicymargaritas @swordmaid @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream

Last Song:

Current Obsession:

This with chia pudding (made at home) and a little cocoa + cinnamon, and fruit. SO GOOD.

ALSO: Industry on HBO. If you liked Succession, this is in that genre. My hubs worked in Big 4 Accounting for 3 years and was impressed how accurate the culture representation is of Big Finance.

Current Reading:

Stupid amounts of fan fics. A few recs of those I'm currently keeping up with: - Threads Of Fate by c_e_p https://archiveofourown.org/works/70699706/chapters/183761991 - The Chiaroscuro of Cazador Szarr by TheSanguineSonnet https://archiveofourown.org/works/80240021 - The Burden Of Your Wrongs by AtsadiWrites https://archiveofourown.org/works/82008561 - What You Made Me by Denesmera https://archiveofourown.org/works/56431204 - Until You by bloodjune https://archiveofourown.org/works/52367269 Not to mention all I have in Mark To Read. LOL

Currently Working On:

#1) My The Grand Design rewrite into 3rd Omni. I've got CH.1-20 done and live! (https://archiveofourown.org/works/62168020/chapters/159024370) #2) A spawn post-game fic that is only in Ellipsus right now. Little snip:

Abigail’s eyes burst open. She stared up at the group staring down from around her. Her first instinct was to move, only to be deterred by the wrist and ankle ties.

Gale and Leon sat her up as she looked around with fear and concern.

Violet squatted before her and held out a small uncorked bottle, grinning without teeth. Abigail eyed it suspiciously.

Violet watched her with impatience, “It’s a healing potion.”

Abigail lifted her paired wrists, taking it. She lifted it to her lips, throwing it back, then puckered, “Klothgrass? Really?”

“Where are you from?” Gale said quickly.

Her head swung to look his way. “I was in Baldur’s Gate last.”

Gale rolled his eyes. It was a correct answer, but deflective. “Place your accent.”

“It’s just my voice?” She looked around, confused.

“Are you from the Shadow Guild?” Violet spat.

The others looked at her oddly, she ignored them as she waited on Abigail.

“No,” Abigail gave her an odd look too.

“Damn it,” Violet hissed.

“Where did you get a map of the Sharran Temple?” Gale asked.

Abigail looked over at him again, “Sundries.”

“Shit,” Gale spat. “Did Rolan give you the map?”

“Sort of.”

Gale held his irritation with a sigh, “Explain.”

“He showed me the tower and let me shop the different sections. Looked for what I could on Shar and the Shadowfell, then found an old scroll which had the layout of what looked like her Gauntlet.”

Aurelia chimed in, “Are you Sharran?”

“No. Why are you asking me all these questions?”

Yousen put his hands on his knees, leaning towards her, “It’s answer our questions or become tonight’s dinner, take your pick.”

“Who’s to say I’m not still going to be dinner if you don’t get the answers you want?” She snapped back.

Gale put his hand out, “I promise, as another mortal among these fiends, you will come to no harm.”

“What good is your word?”

“She’s got a point,” Barcus added.

“Fine, you get a question, we get a question. Is that fair?” Gale offered.

She glanced around at the group. “Sure. Me first, since you got a bunch already.”

“Sure,” Gale repeated.

“Why are you in Shar’s temple?”

The others looked around at each other. Aurelia answered, “How old are you?”

Abigail watched them like a deer in the woods. “That’s not an answer.”

Aurelia cocked a brow, “It’s a prelude. Can you answer my question?”

“No.”

“No as in you don’t want to or you can’t?”

“I can’t.”

Concerned looks shot around the group.

“We are a bunch of freed vampire spawn from Baldur’s Gate. We chose the temple since it was uninhabited and could house all of us. Do you know why you can’t remember your age?”

Abigail’s brow rose, “I’m pretty sure that’s not how memory loss works. How would I know why I can’t remember something?”

“I told you no dumb questions,” Yousen teased.

Aurelia rolled her eyes.

“How many vampire spawn?”

The group looked around nervously.

“Why are you here?” Gale asked instead.

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s a prelude.”

Abigail glared at him, “Can’t use that excuse twice.”

Gale just stared back.

“The number is irrelevant. If you want to keep your head on your shoulders, you’ll say why you’re here,” Yousen snapped.

“You’re just full of threats for someone who can’t follow through. The only reason you’re not in a hold right now is because I’m tied up.”

Yousen grimaced.

“Several thousand,” Violet answered. The others shot her looks of disapproval.

Currently Wearing:

"Maternity" onesie with an oversized U of Richmond Spiders sweatshirt. VERY MOM LEISURE. Honestly, these onesies are one of my best purchases.

Last Search:

Stoneleigh Sav Blanc on TotalWines.com LOL heard it tastes like sparkly peaches.

Favorite Flower:

Lenten Roses/Hellebores. They've been my favorite since I brought home my son from the hospital 3.5yrs ago and they were popping up the first week of February like a welcome. They come in lots of colors. So far we just have white but I'd love some of the deep purple too.

Lenore was kind enough to let me test her new map that’s available in Early Access right now! It’s such a gorgeous place and the lighting is 🤌🏻😘 There’s also a really pretty cave added after I took these and is honestly perfect for some mermaids (and I’ve also been using it for the mummy shots I’ve been working on!).

But I went ham here and just played Barbies for a while:

so apparently i have to become a Sharran to get access to this map...